Days of Wintersend
by Aimee Wolv
Summary: Audra is different, that much is clear, how different doesn't matter though when she has to prepare for her antics and for Wintersend.
1. Chapter 1

**Well it has certainly been a while since I last posted anything… I am so lazy. To honour my laziness I will attempt to post **_**something **_**every day until Christmas, or Christmas Eve depending on when my brother arrives.\**

..

She hid around corners  
>and she hid under beds<br>she killed it with kisses  
>and from it she fled<p>

-Florence and the Machine, Dog days are over

_T'was the night before Wintersend, and all through that badass massive fortified castle known as Skyhold not a creature was stirring except the resident crazy Dalish mage. _

Audra woke up when someone knocked on her window during the witching hour, she grinned and dropped out of her bed, silken sheets still tangled around her body, and slide along the floor to the window. She unlatched it and opened it enough for several parcels to be allowed through the gap, after they were in her possession she place a letter and a coin purse outside and set to sorting out the parcels.

She tore at the paper concealing them; she couldn't in good faith have that boring brown crap on them could she? That would spoil the point of hiding them in random places.

Each of the parcels were for a different member of her dear friend Inquisitor's inner circle and of course one for the Inquisitor herself, in all honesty she had great difficulty trying to find out the perfect gifts for each of them, even then she feared that they wouldn't like them. She had yet to forget that since she wouldn't r in the first place. Be here alive for long it shouldn't matter what they thought, however it was still embedded into her nature.

She dealt with Cassandra's present first, since she had learned of her like for smutty fiction she had asked after something similar to Swords and Shields, and she had received. She didn't care to read it, only skimmed through to make sure it seemed, well as long as it didn't go completely erotic she was fine with that. She wrapped it carefully in decorative paper, which was what had made the second largest dent in her savings for Wintersend.

For Cullen she had simply gotten him some random stuff an old friend had recommended, she quickly wrapped it up, still confused as to why her friend had recommended such a strange hat.

She kept going through each one until only two were left, she picked up the chessboard, in all honesty buying this for Solas was more impulse than actually thinking and debating whether or not he would like it. This was what had cost the most, having chessboards made in an Elvhen style was extremely rare, more likely than not because most Elves wouldn't have the coin to pay for it and even fewer would be interested. What made her smile and would no doubt either confuse him or have him realise what she knew was the overuse, perhaps, of Fen'Harel, the Dread Wolf.

The King was the Dread Wolf, despite an Elvhen chessboard would more commonly have Elgar'nan there instead, and, though it was faint, an image of Fen'Harel was painted over the glass chessboard. She polished it delicately, though she inwardly cursed herself for taking more care with this than any of the others, even though she did reason that it was glass. She didn't exactly realise that she had been talking to herself out loud again until a voice spoke up.

"It certainly says something about you being able to hold a conversation with yourself for so long" she jumped and scrambled to cover up everything more importantly the chessboard.

"For the love of- I didn't think that you would, I, stop freaking me out when we're alone. It makes it even worse." She was easily flustered, in no small part of how close he would usually get and her knowledge- which as of yet was still only known to her- of who he truly was. He took a few steps closer; his curiosity of what she had covered with her bed sheets was what dominated his facial expression.

"I didn't realise I had that effect on you," his lips quirked into a smile, the feeling-we all know what one- refused to abate. She placed her hands over the scar on her side below her ribs, a nervous habit.

"You have multiple effects on me, not all unpleasant, I do confess."

"Oh, really?"

"Especially when we argue, I have a strange taste in fun as I have been told." She took a step back almost tripping over the bed sheets; he grabbed her arm and steadied her. She smiled nervously; she could feel it, his power. She had yet to grow used to this places magic but she was overly sensitive to it, magic felt raw to her something restrained and controlled but raw but sometimes it felt as soft as silk. More so with him, it annoyed her, she couldn't afford this not now, though she did want it.

"I wonder what is under all that silk?"

"The Illuminati," was the first thing that sprang from her lips, "and of course several Archdemons a few apostates and the Australian government. Why do you need to know?" she took a step closer to him just as he did the same.

"What can I say? You're different from other Dalish elves. That makes you worth knowing." Their faces were a few inches from each other, she turned around suddenly, her breathing was almost erratic and she was blushing furiously. . Considering she had spent her entire life completely innocent and naïve this wasn't an uncommon reaction when she even heard of someone doing something mildly affectionate.

"I- you had best go it is rather late, oh is that the first rays of dawn I see? Best you go down and have nice adventures in the Fade or something like that." She ushered him out of her room and locked the door behind him. Of course it was still hours before any light would be seen in the sky. She slid down to the floor she picked up a heavy book off of the floor, 'the complete people's laws of Kirkwall' wasn't very exciting but it was heavy. She slammed the book into her face, twice.

"I am the strangest most confusing person to ever grace Thedas, or anywhere. " she half whispered half groaned to herself, she finished up with the gifts for Wintersend, she gathered them all into a bag placing the chessboard at the bottom. Now she couldn't get the thought of _him_ out of her head, "Curse that bald head of his, curse it so it grows hair just enough for him to look stupid and he has to shave it."

She sat the bag on her modest bed before throwing open her closet for anything black and ninja like. She found a black scarf which she promptly wrapped around her head, leaving only a slit for her to see. She threw on a dark shirt and comfy pair of pants that were more of a dark grey but she wasn't too picky at this point. She took the bag and stole from her room like a thief, or someone who takes holiday's way to seriously.

She slide down the staircase rail thingamabob and raced towards the Inquisitor's staircase, she picked the lock to her room and placed her present on the Inqusitor's desk. She smiled before bolting when she heard the inquisitor speak in her sleep, something about nugs probably.

She then proceeded to Cole, who was still awake so she just handed him his.

"You can't open it until everyone is awake, alright?"

"But why?"

"But why not?" was her reply before grinning at him and going down to the next level to Sera's area. She took out the wrapped jars carefully, grimacing at the thought of all the mayhem she could cause with these. But even so she still left them outside Sera's door.

She asked Krem, whom was still awake; to hide Bull's present somewhere then she gave her the present she had gotten for her.

She then dumped Cassandra's, Blackwall's, and Cullen's presents in the armoury unwilling to go back up those stairs. She found a way up to Vivienne's area without going into Solas' mural room; she placed the package carefully on the little table. She had tried hard to get several Orlesians to work together to create this, if Vivienne didn't like it Audra would track those Orlesians down and make them pay.

It was dawn by the time she got to Leliana, she barely concealed it within her stack of reports and other stuff. Dorian's she simply put on his sleeping face.

Now she had to figure out a way to get past Solas to hide his present somewhere, she leaned over the railing, yawning, she had run all over Skyhold to hide these presents. She descended the stairs and clambered on top of the scaffolding; she sat down and leant against the wall.

'_It can't hurt to just rest for a few minutes, I haven't slept at all'_ she clutched Solas' chessboard to her chest, she closed her eyes to her it was only for a moment.

.

Light streamed from above and it was annoying, she was sure she had closed her curtains before she went to sleep. She mumbled something about slinkies and stairs before opening her eyes. it took her a while to realise that she was indeed in a bed, not her own but a bed nonetheless, even so she didn't freak out, due to the fact she was still half asleep. It took her a minute to realise that someone was holding her.

She look down at the slender fingers holding her in place, she looked over her shoulder to see Solas sleeping peacefully.

'_So much for not getting emotionally involved idiot, you just couldn't drop off the Chessboard could you?'_ she smiled to herself, it was a secret smile the kind reserved for when you believe no one is watching. Those smiles are always the most sincere; of course they are secret usually.

Her tightened his grip on her suddenly, and she laid her head back down on the pillow they apparently shared. This was a blissful moment; she closed her eyes and pretended that just for a few minutes, maybe hours, that there was nothing else in the world but them.

His chest was pressed up against her back; his breath tickled the back of her neck and her pointed ears. She laid her hands over his own; her heartbeat thudded in her ears. She was fine with this; it was peaceful, serene even.

A few minutes later he began to wake up; she stayed still, she had actually fallen asleep again. He supported himself with one elbow; he brushed a few strands of hair away from her face. He pressed his lips against her temple; which woke her up.

"Solas?" she murmured and turned over to face him. Her eyes only half open, "Vhenan?" she whispered.

"I am here." He whispered back, her eyes opened fully when he replied, she tried to sit up but was promptly distracted by Solas who had claimed her lips as his own. Heat spread to her cheeks; needless to say she enjoyed it. She hummed enjoying herself more than she should. But he broke away before anything could escalate to her slight displeasure.

She smiled, she almost felt all the masks she had put on melt away leaving her bare and that frightened her. She shot up muttering some form of half assed excuse before escaping- sorry- exiting with flair faster than normal. Subtle, right?

She rushed to her own quarters, leaned against the door; she couldn't help but grin to herself. Though now it frightened her, however today was Wintersend and she needed her mask.

She turned to her wall, masks lined it almost covering it completely, and she loved masks and understood completely why Orlesians wore them everywhere. She plucked one from the wall, it was a light purple and white both faded into the other, it twisted and twirled into a beautiful mask. She placed it on her bed then went to her still open closet.

She stepped inside it, searching around the back for something she hadn't worn in a long time, it was a form of armour, though she barely used it anymore because she had better stuff.

It was a mage robe, yes, with a leather thing that can only be described as a corset despite the fact it is not. The cloth was a dark blue, and combined with the hardened leather to go around the neck, mostly to hold the dress up. There were a few buckles she could manage to do, though a few would simply have to be left undone.

She slide under her bed when she heard someone knock at the door.

"No one's here!" She called out.

**DONE. FIN. THE END. FINSHED. OTHER SAYINGS/WORDS THAT MEAN THIS HAS ENDED.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I love fluff stories, not good at writing them but I love them. Should anyone know any good dragon age/mass effect/elder scrolls themed fluff send me a link!**

Regrets collect like old friends  
>here to relive all your darkest moments<br>I can see no way, I can see no way  
>and all of the ghouls come out to play<p>

_One the first day of Wintersend my Salroka gave to me a chance to be with my now lover  
>One the Second day of Wintersend my lover and Salroka gave to me two secret kisses and a chance to be with my now lover.<em>

Val Royeaux, a massive ass city full of fanatical Andrastians, it reminded her of home. Well, one of them anyway, a small group of both human and elven children ran past her dirt dusted their faces lightly. She smiled at the sight, it wasn't often human and elven children played together, especially in Val Royeaux. She looked around the market place for an old friend and waved to him when she saw him. He smiled at her, despite him only recently coming to the surface he seemed well adjusted, he wasn't even panicking over the sky or nothing.

"Good to see you, Salroka, how's it shaping?" he grinned at her, she grinned back, she and Loke had been friends for a while since she had made a few deals with the Carta through him. he was charismatic enough for them to become fast friends, though at first he seemed to do nothing but flirt.

"I'm faring well enough, haven't become a 'cloudgazer' have you?"He laughed.

"Not on your life, Salroka, I'm still able to hear the isana from kilometres away, even here in Orlais." They walked together for some time, commenting on the various citizens and their masks. "Now you wouldn't have asked to see me here if you weren't on loose sand, Salroka, what's the matter." Her smiled faded,

"You have heard about the Divine's conclave I would assume?" she asked softly, by the time the conclave was held it would be two years of the Mage-Templar war.

"Of course, who hasn't, she announced it a year in advance."

"I fear-no- I know that something bad is going to happen there and I also know that the Carta wants you or someone else to go there to check it out." He remained silent, but nodded to encourage her to go on, "please, Loke, don't go there. Let anyone else go there but, it'll be dangerous there."

"How do you know any of this for sure, Salroka?"He asked, though he knew the answer.

"The same way I always do, friend, the same way I always do." he smiled weakly at her.

"Alright, Salroka, I'll see what I can do to convince the Carta to keep out of the Conclave, now I won't have to wait for so long to hear from you again, yeah?"she chuckled.

"I'll keep that in mind."

..

"You trying to hide from me, Salroka? I'm offended." She shot out from under the bed and ran to embrace her friend.

"Loke! I had thought you'd still be near, well, some form of civilisation. How'd you find your way here?" he grinned at her and nodded towards Josephine for her to answer.

"Well, we had to get Lyrium for the mages somewhere, so I organised some deals with Carta, they sent your friend here and he told me about you, and some other friends you shared. I thought perhaps you would want to have someone familiar nearby during Wintersend." Josephine smiled at Audra who beamed back.

"Thank you, Josephine, truly. We haven't seen each other since-what- Val Royeaux?" she looked to Loke for confirmation, her rubbed his dark beard as he thought.

"Yes, that about right, Salroka, oh and before I forget." He reached around into the little bag at his hip, his hood casting a long shadow over his face. "Here, I got something for you." he produced a necklace with a large decorative pendent, it looked elvish in style but it was decorated with little bits of Lyrium.

"Loke, this is amazing! Where did you even get this? It looks like Orvil's work but he hasn't done jewellery in years."

"All I had to do was mention that it was for you, Salroka, you know us, and we care too much. Now at least you'll sing as good as you look." She laughed at his words and slapped him lightly on the back of the head.

"You ass," she grinned hugged him again.

"We had best leave Audra to get dressed; the Inquisitor wants everyone to have breakfast together on the main hall." She closed the door softly behind them, and set on putting on that dress she had pulled out of the closet earlier but she decided to abandon the mask. There wasn't any need for a mask anymore.

She checked herself out in her mirror, it had been a long time since she wore it and it now showed off a lot more of her bosom than she remembered. She adjusted it a little before heading out to the main hall. When she entered she was shocked at how loud everything was, song were sung both while drunk and sober in every corner of the room. She found a seat beside Loke, surprisingly Solas was seated not too far away usually he would even show.

"You still have that dress, Salroka?" Loke asked raising an eyebrow.

"Of course, I haven't worn it in a long time, and it's pretty."

"Ah, you know I can't disagree with beautiful women, Salroka." She chuckled again; brushing her white hair behind her ear she turned to face Loke more easily.

Josephine was seated across from Audra, they smiled at each other.

"Are either of you interested in playing Wicked Grace later? Varric's setting up another game." Loke grinned, Audra could practically see the gears turning inside his head, figuring out the best way to cheat and win.

"I'm always up to losing more money to you, Josie, what about you Loke? Or are you too afraid to mingle with surfacers?" winked at her before answering.

"I'm always up to playing with you, Salroka, you know how easy it is to win someone's money when they keep getting told how stunningly gorgeous they are." She rolled her eyes, and tore a small bread roll in half offering the other to Loke. Just as he took it he whispered to her.

"That elf over there has been watching you this whole time, something you're not telling me, Salroka?" she glanced up towards Solas quickly, he was indeed watching her, his expression was a mix between what she could only assume was some form of longing and possessiveness. She blushed, she looked down.

"Ah, um, that's Solas, the Inquisitor's arcane advisor, he's a Fade walker." She bit into the bread roll which was deliciously warm and buttery.

"He certainly has his eye on you, Salroka, be careful, your heart always breaks easily." She frowned at him, and folded her hands on her lap.

"I can look after myself, Salroka, I'm not a child, falling in love isn't the problem."

"S you admit that's what you're both doing." She glanced towards Solas again, now that she was made actively aware of him she fidgeted. She crossed her right leg over her left, then the other way, and then back again. "Let me help, Salroka." He rolled his eyes before gesturing for her to lean down. He told her to laugh and so she did. With one hand she covered her mouth. For a few minutes Loke flirted with her loud enough for it to pass onto Solas, who had risen half way out of his seat.

She glanced up at Solas only to see him completely out of his seat and making his way towards them. He dodged one of Cullen's recruits and a mage dancing and two dwarves precariously handling their beer and ale.

"Audra, I need to speak with you." his hand gripped the back of her chair, his knuckles white, Loke looked him up and down and raised an eyebrow in apparent disapproval.

"I'm sure whatever you need to say to my Salroka you can say in front of me." Solas narrowed his eyes and was no doubt about to hiss out a retort before Audra stood and spoke up.

"Its fine, Loke, I'm sure we won't be too long. Talk to Varric or Josie about Wicked Grace or something." Josephine watched their exchange with some interest. Solas grabbed onto her upper arm and lead her away from the festivities and into the gardens, they stopped under the pavilion. He let go of her then and turned away from her, she felt concerned for him

"Solas-"she began but wasn't able to continue before his mouth claimed hers, their tongues danced, and warmth spread to her cheeks. But he broke away far too soon for her liking. She reclaimed his mouth, on hand was on the back of her neck while the other rested on her waist. Both of her arms were around his neck, holding him as close as she could for as long as she could. When they stopped she rested her forehead against his, her eyes half closed.

"Ma vhenan," she whispered, more for herself than him, it was almost as if she wanted to reassure herself that he was hers and she was his.

"me vhenan, me enansal." She smiled and kissed his nose.

"I hope you've enjoyed your Winersend so far."

..

Sometimes she took him back to when the Elves were at their prime, when almost all kept slaves and those that didn't were slaves. She took him back to when there was another woman like her who dared argue against the gods and was punished for it.

When he had entered their throne room, it was already too late for Mythal to calm tempers, of either God or mortal.

She stood in the middle wildly and, of course, violently towards them more so Elgar'Nan than the others.

"You have no right! None! You believe yourselves to be gods but you are nothing more than children playing at being kings and queens! These people you have enslaved are just a capable as you!" her long white hair was flashing in the light cast by the fire around her. a circle of fire she had no doubt cast herself.

"We have every right! Who are you to gainsay us? Some foolish woman who thinks that she can simply join with another to try and make things right? You are nothing to us." Elgar'Nan's booming voice echoed around the room, but she stood tall and did not waver.

"I may be no true elf to you, bastard, but I know and have lived the future elves have because you set them on this path! You will disappear into nothingness! While I shall be here still trying to fix your mistakes!" Her greens eyes flashed in anger, "you are worthless the entire lot of you! Your people suffer because of you! These slaves are your people and you treat them like they are nothing."

He had to speak up; this woman would get herself killed, though she was formidable and no doubt a force to be reckoned with.

"Elgar'Nan, she is right, they too are elves."

"Starting to pity them, Fen'Harel?" He couldn't keep the sneer from his face nor the scorn from his voice, "I have heard enough today." He raised a hand to dismiss her, the woman's eye widened she knew that if he dismissed her she would never get through to him.

"NO!" she screamed, and raised her hands towards Elgar'Nan, Fen'Harel could hear the thoughts going through her head.

'_so she lights up a candle for hope to be found  
>captive and blind by the darkness around<br>firm as a mountain she will never mourn  
>timeless awaiting the break of dawn'<em>

To them both it was a prayer to what god was a mystery, but she pleaded for help all the same.

Snakes made of pure energy shot from her arms towards Elgar'Nan at the same time Elgar'Nan sought to mark her and the same time Fen'Harel sought to protect her, and so she was marked. The Vallaslin was Fen'Harel's but formed with the images of the woman's own snakes. A compromise, of sorts.

She fell to her knees, her hands covering her face; the room was silent save for her sharp breaths. Then finally she stood up, her hands left her face.

"I shall wear this as a badge of honour, though it will be my death, I will never bend to your will. For you have doomed your own kind and left only two of you to walk the plains of time." She raised one hand and the earth consumed her pulling her away out of their reach.

But her prayer still reached his ears.

'_Can you hear the sailorman's hymn?  
>As it comes with the rise of the tide<br>It is sung where the rainbow begins  
>As a comfort for tears she has cried<em>

She remains by the window alone  
>Staring into the rain<br>She is trying to guide his way home  
>Keeps on praying for god to protect him'<p>

He looked at Mythal and knew that she heard only fragments of what he heard as clear as day, these messages were meant for him. Though they contained no meaning, other than that they were simply there.

..

"We'd best get back to the main hall." He said it reluctantly; it was clear in his voice. She sighed; she was perfectly content resting on the bench his arms around her and her head resting on his chest.

"Nadas?" she asked, pressing her face into his chest, his arms tightened around her.

"Sulevin" Creators, she could hear the smile in his voice.

"You sure?" he adjusted her so that he could carry her; her put her arms around his neck. She held on tight as he carried her back to the main hall, it was still only barely morning. They had only taken an hour or so. He set her down just outside the door, she grinned at him before leaning in close.

"I'll expect you later tonight, don't be late." She entered the main hall with as much flair as she could muster without setting something on fire, no that it wasn't tempting. Loke was laughing and joking with Josephine. She walked over to join them.

"Ah! Salroka! You seem to be in one piece!" his cheeks were rosy; he obviously had gotten into the alcohol.

"Don't believe I can't defend myself against on mage, Salroka?"

"Bah!" Audra laughed, and soon a question rose from Josephine.

"I've heard the word before but never learnt its meaning, what is a 'Salroka'?"

"Its casteless slang in the simplest terms, Salroka means friend and more literally translates to 'The One at my Side." Audra explained, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear, "even though it is dwarven not many of those with castes deign to use it. Other course with Bhelen now the king of Orzammar that may soon change, casteless will probably mingled with others with fewer, or maybe more, deaths than usual."

"Do you… approve of the Hero of Fereldan's choice to make him king?" Audra smiled at Josephine.

"I do, the casteless have a chance to prove themselves and they've even clamed a few more thiags, but I worry sometimes, Bhelen is willing to do anything. He killed his own brother and framed his other sibling."

**Another chapter done!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Needless to say I am confused about the past tense of the word 'latch'. Also slightly late, slept in til eleven sooo… yay?**

_We three Viscounts of the Free Marches are bearing gifts we traverse afar. Field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder massive ass hole in the sky._

When the Inquisition was formed it wasn't the first time that Solas and Audra had met and the Wintersend with the inquisition wasn't her first, sometimes she called it something else, however her most memorable Wintersend was the one without her family and without the Clan she had so graciously been allowed into.

She sat at a table in the corner of the tavern, she was the only one in the room other than the barmaid and a drunk passed out across the room. A candle was burning low in the middle of her little table, she sipped the wine she had bought, not as strong as she was used to but it was sweet. A small treat for herself.

She fiddled wither necklace, it was simple in design yet distinctly Dalish, the snakes of her Vallaslin trailed even down to her finger tips, she frowned at the memory of how she had gotten these marks, but now was not the time to ponder on ages past. She dropped some silver on the table grabbed her coat and left the tavern. It was rain, but it was always rain or snow in this part of Fereldan. She drew her hood up and over her hair; she jogged quickly through the streets, hoping to reach the barn that she had convinced the owner to so kindly let her stay in for the night.

She passed a few houses light up like a lantern, no doubt families celebrating their good fortune. She scoffed to herself and continued on; she soon reached the barn and entered through a small side door she latched the door closed. There were a few horses in the barn, and a few chickens other than that it was just her. She set her coat down on a hay bale; she searched through her satchel for the bottle of wine she had purchased at the tavern. Set it down on the hay bale, and continued searching through it. From it she produced a blanket, a change of clothes and a brush. She undid the braid binding her hair and set to brushing out any knots or tangles that may have formed.

She started from the bottom like she usually did, except this time she didn't have the buzz of conversation around her, she didn't have the Second absently talking about the game their hunters had brought back or the hunter of the day who had caught her attention. She didn't have any of the children running up to her bringing plants or insects for her to identify. She didn't have the Keeper explaining what she knew of the ancient Elvhen, she didn't have the chance to ask her Keeper to tell her favourite legends again as though she were still a child.

She scowled, there was no need for this, events had to be set in place forwarded or stalled, she had to prepare. She threw the brush down and set to putting it back into a braid. She stripped off her shirt to address the bandage that desperately needed to be changed; she threw on her coat when she heard a knock at the side door. She unlatched the door and opened it, an elven man, a city elf by the looks of him for he wore no Vallaslin, stood at the door. He was miserably soaked by the rain.

"I… the farmer didn't tell me to expect anyone." Her eyes widened and she stepped back to allow him through, he nodded to her in thanks. He dropped his own coat over a hay bale opposite her own.

"I suppose he wouldn't have, he doesn't even know I'm here." She was shocked; she hadn't expected a _city elf_ to disregard shemlen laws so easily, it was trespassing after all.

"He doesn't know you're here?" she asked plopping herself down on her hay bale, she crossed her legs.

"Why should he? He doesn't even actually own this barn himself either."

"I would have of expected this from a-" she began but he interrupted her.

"A flat-ear?" he raised an eyebrow, she pursed her lips.

"No, city elf, or so I assume you are." She corrected him. She dug around in her satchel for two mugs, she expected that he would be here for the night as well, she was glad of that. She didn't like the idea of spending the night alone in this barn. "What brings you here anyway? If you lived in this town you wouldn't be squatting in this barn with me." she set down the two mugs and poured wine into both of them, she handed one to him.

"I'm simply passing through, I've heard of some ruins nearby." He raised his eyebrows at the wine before tasting it. "Interesting choice."

"It was cheap." She shrugged sipping her own wine, "not as good as what I'm used to but it still has the same effect."

"What wine would you usually have?" she chewed on her lip before answering.

"The Keeper made something called Summer wine whenever we made camp in Orlais, it was amazing. It didn't take long for the hunters to be deep in their cups." She chortled "I remember when our Second would get positively _pissed_ at her hunter of the day when they got drunk and tried to kiss her. The look on their faces when she retaliated." She laughed and smiled down into her drink. She drained the mug and set it down beside her, she fiddled with her braid.

"Why leave then?"he asked, her smiled slipped from her face.

"There are things that need to be done, and only I can do them. There's nothing more I can say, and I don't expect you to understand."

"I understand completely." He said softly, she rolled her shoulders and refilled their mugs.

It didn't take long for them to be well and truly drunk. Then they passed out.

When they woke up the next morning they both had throbbing headaches.

"Never drinking again" She whispered hoarsely, "that much I know for certain."

"Don't make promises you won't keep." The elven man whispered just as quietly as she.

..

The next Wintersend she had away from her clan was with Loke's family, in Orzammar. She had her staff close at hand, well and truly prepared to be attacked either by the Carta or some other duster. But she made her way through Dust town to Loke's home, she felt out of place in her elven mage armour all shiny chain mail and elegant designs. Loke greeted her at the door grinning, she grinned back.

"Good to see you, Salroka!" his voice was loud, but he was a loud person he was hard to miss but when he wanted to disappear he could just fade, almost become part of the wall itself. His voice drew curious eyes from nearby. Well, more than those that followed her because she was a surfacer in Dust town, not only that but an elven mage.

"Always nice to see good friends this time of year, Loke." He let her step inside she nodded graciously at him. A tiny dwarven child rushed towards her she bent down to pick him up, she balanced him on her hip.

"Orvil!" Loke scolded the child; Audra laughed and shook her head at her friend.

"Its fine, Loke, he's too young for we Dalish to boil and eat him. Yet." A dwarven woman then entered the room, her apron covered in what Audra assumed was flour, though it could have of been anything.

"Loke, is this…?" the woman trailed off looking inquisitively at Audra, Loke nodded and spoke.

"Yes, this is Audra, Audra my sister Hendra. Soon to be the next paragon!" he exclaimed proudly, Hendra rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"As much as he wishes I'm not going to end up a paragon, I'm just a noble hunter with a hobby of smithing for the Carta."

"You shouldn't doubt yourself, Hendra." Loke said, putting and arm around her shoulders. She took the child from Audra and led them into a kitchen and a dining room rolled into one. She sat the child down in a chair and motioned for Loke and Audra to sit as well.

"Please sit, everything will be ready shortly." Audra felt slightly overwhelmed; she hadn't expected to be welcomed so readily, she expected suspicion questions, that sort of thing. But this was just 'yep cool this isn't unusual at all'.

"So, Loke, have any special plans for Wintersend?" she asked, trying to make some form of conversation.

"Just spending time with family and you, Salroka, what would your clan do this time of year?"

"Frolic." She said, she had a wry smile, Loke laughed loudly.

"You're shitting me, right?"

"Of course I am! It's blasphemous to frolic on Wintersend." She said solemnly, she'd let him believe that for now.

"Loke! Are you swearing in fron of Orvil?" Loke swore under his breath

..

But her favourite Wintersend was with her clan, during Arlathvhen, with the Keeper, the hunters and the Second.

"Audra!" the Second, Sulahn, ran towards her pulling her hunter of the day behind her. Audra smiled, as she finished grabbing out all of the statues taking more care with the statue of Fen'Harel than the others. She loaded the last on onto the smaller wagon and waited for Sulahn to arrive.

"Sulahn, you were meant to… you're drunk aren't you?" Audra shook her head at Sulahn and waved her away, for which she looked grateful. Smiling she set up the statues, with no small help from her magic. She set out Fen'Harel's last, though she loathed to do so he was set out furthest away from the camp. She rested on the balls of her feet next to him for a few moments.

"Perhaps it won't always be like this." She whispered to the statue, petting it on the head and turning to rejoin the clan. She stood beside the Keeper who, once Audra had joined her, looked a bit sheepish about letting Sulahn drink.

The Keeper was a raven hair woman in her early fifties; she had dark eyes lined with even darker eye shadow and eyeliner. She put an arm around Audra's shoulders and hugged her close; the Keeper was always more of a mother than an actual Keeper to her. For that she was thankful.

"You shouldn't have let her off so easily, Da'len." The Keeper smiled at her and handed her a glass of her summer wine. She sipped it, and smiled, it was amazing but there was something different about it.

"Fen'Harel's teeth, you didn't actually put Elfroot in this?" she shook her head; Elfroot could easily be turned into a sedative if prepared like one would prepare tea or wine.

"I thought it would be interesting!" the Keeper laughed, before wandering off to converse with some of the hunters. Audra turned around when she felt someone or something tug on her robes. One of the children had actually managed to ride a wolf into the camp.

"I-I-I what?" she stuttered, more confused than ever, the girl simply grinned and hugged the large black wolf. Usually wolves reach somewhere below Audra's waist but this one was _huge_. Its head reached her elbows!

"I founded him!" the girl yelled happily, the wolf howled almost as if in agreement.

"Wha- Where did you find him, Da'len?" Audra's mouth quirked into a smile when the wolf sniffed and licked her arm, she ran a hand over its fur. Which was surprisingly soft and free of, well, anything.

"In the forest!" she slid down from the wolf's back, and hugged it.

"Wolves don't normally act like this, is it possessed, perhaps?" she whispered to herself, "Where in the forest Da'len?"

"Near ruins! But it was dark, and there were _things_ in there." Audra winced; more than likely there were corpses, giant spiders and possibly bandits. Common inhabitants of ruins, sadly.

"Where exactly in the forest?" the child smiled, seemingly

"Close, but hidden." She picked the girl up and gave her to another woman passing by; she knelt down in front of the wolf. it sniffed her face and licked her, she ran another hand through its fur.

"Alright, you know where these ruins are, I'm guessing you're no ordinary wolf, and if I'm correct you've been possessed by a spirit or demon I'm not picky, and if that's happened the Veil is thin or there's a tear." The wolf cocked its head to the side, listening intently. "I need to go there and repair the Veil." The wolf ran around her before heading off into the forest, sighing she grabbed her staff and followed after it.

Deeper and deeper into the forest they went, and soon came across an Elven ruin. The wolf had disappeared inside already; she ran her fingers over the stone. She heard the wolf howl and followed, as she had suspected there were walking corpses, can't have an ancient ruin without walking corpses, can you?

Soon each and every one fell to flame and teeth, after the last one was burnt to ash she plopped herself down on the ground and covered her eyes with her hands.

"Corpses, why does it always have to be a corpse, that's just morbid." She removed her hands and looked around, the ruins ceiling was high and round, there were mosaics covering the walls. But there was directly across from the entrance depicting a large wolf, she stalked over to it, running her fingers over the other mosaics that she passed.

This mosaic was of the Dread Wolf, normally you wouldn't find temples, or anything really, of Fen'Harel this far east.

"Enjoy being under the gaze of Fen'Harel?" a woman's voice echoed throughout the ruin. Audra turned searching for the source of the voice.

"Who are you?" she called out, she added a bit more quietly, "where are you?"

"Deeper in the ruin, come and find me, First of your clan." The wolf appeared beside her, she shrugged and went deeper, she hurried down the stairs the wolf keeping in step beside her.

There were statues of the Elven gods lining the walls, even of Fen'Harel, this surprised her. Soon she entered a largish room with a pool of water in the middle.

"Here, da'len." A voice came from the pool, Audra knelt beside it.

"Well, it's not every day you see someone trapped underwater _and _have them talk to you." the woman in, or under, the water rolled her eyes.

"Look, personally I cannot _wait_ to get out of this water, so if you could get me out of here that would be great."

"What's in it for me?"

"This ruin isn't enough for you? Ugh, there's treasure and other things in this ruin. I'll open it for you once you get me out of here."

"How did you get trapped in there?"

"Magic, some of my old friends, who are probably dead, were casting a experimental spell. It was _meant_ to bind a spirit into the very stone. However the idiots forgot to summon a spirit first, me not being actually apart of the ritual was instead bound in the place of a spirit. Why it assumed _I_ should be bound is beyond our ken. Anyway, you'll need to disrupt the ritual circle once you've done so you'll have your treasure! Sound good? Great."

Audra, seeing no other options beyond do what the crazy chick says and run for your life chose the former, because that is clearly the most logical thing to do. She looked to the wolf; the wolf simply walked out the door then looked back as if expecting her to follow.

They went through the ruins, no hint of resistance, which considering there were corpses strewn about, it made her uneasy.

They reached the ritual room, a simple circle, getting rid of the candles and dispelling any magic in the area would be enough.

"Seems simple enough, what do you think?" she looked at the wolf, it gave her a look that read 'I'm a wolf what do you expect me to think?' "Good point." she nudged one of the candles with her toe. Nothing happened, well no corpses rose from the dead at least. She froze the candles and kicked them out of the way with her staff.

She raised her hand to dispel the magic, the familiar feeling of simple _absence_ of magic settled on her skin.

"Well, that was easy. Let's go back to the magic crazy chick."

When they returned, after being attacked by the corpses that were perfectly dead mere moments ago, the woman was gone and a door was open.

They walked through the door, because walls are impossible to walk through, and there was indeed treasure and a staff which was pretty nice.

She picked up the staff; engravings of Fen'Harel were carved on the shaft.

"It's like my life revolves around Fen'Harel, bah."

**Fin. No really.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I was just reading through what I've already written and I have noticed so many mistakes and all I can think about is how on earth I could have of missed those simple mistakes. **

.

.

She made her way back to the camp, the wolf followed at her heel but soon fell away to do whatever wolves do, like frolic. She brought back the staff she had snagged from the ruin among some other less interesting things.

Sulahn rushed up to her, and hugged her.

"By the creators, Audra, we were so worried!" Sulahn tongue for 'the Keeper was mildly concerned while Sarmet was frantic, oh and I was snogging someone.'

"There's never any need to worry, I'll always come back at some point." She smiled at Sulahn, and patted her shoulder trying to reassure her.

"We heard you had gone off with a _wolf_, one of the children said that it went to your shoulders!"

"Elbows and one of the children rode it into camp, so suck it." She walked past her towards her aravel; she stored a few of the items she wanted to look at later which was most of them. She laid the staff under some blankets. She didn't want her life revolve around the Dread Wolf until it absolutely had to, which it wouldn't for two years, or less depending on how her week goes.

"Audra, please why did you go into the forest with a _wolf_?" she frowned, usually she wasn't this concerned when she ventured away from camp.

"Why are you so upset over this? It's just a wolf."

"It was a massive wolf! What if it was Fen'Harel? Anything could have of happened to you!"

"With what the Da- we know the Dread Wolf is in the Fade rocking in a corner giggling. I doubt he'd be overly concerned with luring me into the forest to, I don't know, kill me? Have his way with me? if anything he'd just kill us all in the middle of camp." She shrugged and turned back to her aravel, pulling out her gift for Sulahn.

"Audra, don't joke about that, he could hear you." she rolled her eyes at the ridiculousness of her worries. She pressed the necklace into Sulahn's hands; it had a pendant made of a Halla horn.

"Hamin, Sulahn, just enjoy yourself; don't worry about something that didn't come to pass." She smiled at her before moving to join the Keeper, which would keep Sarmet at a respectful distance, thankfully.

"So you ventured into the forest with a monster of a wolf, seems legitimate, find anything?" the Keeper asked, handing her another glass of wine.

"Elven ruins a temple, or something, to Fen'Harel it appears. He featured largely; there was this beautiful mosaic of him. You should have of seen it Keeper, it was a beautiful place." The Keeper raised an eyebrow at her, either disbelieving or disapproving.

"Da'len…" she trailed off.

"But, Keeper, it was beautiful. Perhaps there's something we got wrong, maybe Fen'Harel used to be completely on the creators side or something like that, maybe he was benevolent at some point." She smiled at the Keeper, perhaps she could simply ease the Keeper towards the truth, to what Fen'Harel truly was. Not a trickster god, but one that favoured rebellion.

"No, Da'len, perhaps what you saw was a trick of the Dread Wolf, or you misinterpreted it. It might be like our statues of the Dread Wolf, to simply appease him." Audra bowed her head.

"Yes, Keeper, that… that does sound more likely,"

"Go, Da'len, enjoy today, and give Sarmet a chance, he's a good hunter and a good man." _You can't keep chasing after a dream_ was what was left unsaid, but it had been said so many times they both knew that it didn't need to be.

"I'll… I'll try, Keeper, I make no promises." She saw a group from one of the other clans make their way over, she had almost forgotten that it was Arlathvhen; her clan did usually stick to themselves after all. She felt some sort of despair after the Keeper left to go talk with the approaching group, soon Sarmet approached.

"Sarmet," she nodded in greeting, she managed to keep the ice out of her voice, barely.

"Vhenan-"he began, her nostrils flared, _how dare he?_

"_You _don't get to call me that." Her tone was ice cold, her fists clenched, "you will _never _get to call me that." She barely noticed how her voice had risen, Sulahn walked over, practically stalked, her expression was icy.

"Sarmet, dear, are you foolishly pestering our First of the clan? She has already made her opinion clear. I suggest you go find another hunter to beg a pelt off of, we all know how you really became a fully fledged hunter." He threw up his hands, Audra smiled gratefully at Sulahn, she threw her arms around her.

"Thank you, Lethallan, truly."

"We all have to have something to live for, mine is to chase off Sarmet, Sarmet's is to piss us both off." Sulahn scowled after Sarmet, she shook her head, said her goodbyes then went off to join the Keeper.

"Then what is mine?" she whispered, then shook her head, "I know the answer, silly foolish old me."

Later that night the clan, along with a few members of other clans, gathered around the large bon fire the Keeper had conjured up, literally. A few were dancing, other drinking, Audra sat with Fen'Harel.

"It's a beautiful night," she spoke softly, afraid someone else would hear, she could still remember the sting when she had last been caught talking with Fen'Harel years before. She'd been more cautious since, for good reason too, their superstition made them fearful and their blissful ignorance made it even worse. But she couldn't fault them for it, they had lost so much.

"Not often you have company, not your fault, just information that got mixed up. Mistranslated, and such." She laid a hand on the statue's head, and smiled at it. "Do you think that he-you really- is awake, or is he dreaming in the Fade? Doesn't even matter I suppose, emotional attachments aren't part of the job description, so to speak." She laid her legs out in front of her, her arms held her up as she leaned back.

She frowned, using one hand she brushed off some of the dirt that had settled on him. It was simple, but this was a good night.

"You'd think that the Dalish would be more concerned with learning of our past, they've gotten lax certainly, have they lost sight of what they could accomplish? Or is it their faith they've lost? I s'pose it doesn't matter, does it?"

..

She chatted with Josephine for a while, but soon Leliana waved Josephine over so she was left with just Loke.

"How is Orvil by the way?" she asked, hugging her arms close to her body, it wasn't cold but she felt a little chilled.

"He's great, making weapons and such for the Carta and for surfacers when they go down to visit Orzammar, but like you said he doesn't do much jewellery or anything else like that anymore. Shame, real shame." He shook his head, and then shrugged. "But what can I do? He's old enough to make his own choices."

"He's five, Loke; he is not old enough to make his own choices if he can't, 'old enough to make your own choices' is when you move out of home." Loke grinned at her; she rolled her eyes, said a simple goodbye and walked over to fill a glass of wine. As she did so she raised a hand to trace the lies of her Vallaslin, in some ways people said it resembled a wolf. She didn't like to think about it brought back bad times.

She filled her glass to the brim; the Inquisitor had gotten this from Val Royeaux she believed, sipping it slowly, mostly due to the high alcohol content not any desire to appear cultured, she made her way around the room. She stuck to the edges, close to the walls; Solas was standing in a corner, she'd make her way over there. Slowly so it didn't seem like she was pining for him so soon, she'd time herself if she had to.

She took her eyes off of him for a few moments, watching an exchange between Dorian, Sera and Blackwall. She smiled, a strange trio but humorous nonetheless.

"Vhenan," his breath tickled the back of her neck, and he placed his hands on her hips pulling her close. Her ears and cheeks burned, Solas chuckled, and she swatted him. _I shall have my revenge one day, Harel_. She turned around, throwing her arms over his shoulders pushing him against the wall, he staggered back she grinned at him before kissing him and then she turned to disappear into the crowd. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back to him, she kissed him again, feeling his lips part under hers. She closed her eyes and leaned into him, their public display would continue to go unnoticed if the crowd remained as it was.

**I swear these come out later and later every day. Ugh, anyway. Have some random form of fluff which I am not entirely sure clarifies as fluff.**


	5. Chapter 5

**I was just recently told that Wintersend is **_**not **_**the dragon age equivalent of Christmas, ah well what can you do?**

.

_Love bites, love bleeds  
>It's bringin' me to my knees<br>Love lives, love dies  
>It's no surprise<br>Love begs, love pleads  
>It's what I need <em>

-Def Leppard, Love Bites

Plenty of others had favoured memories of Wintersend too, like the Inquisitor.

She remembered, as she watched Solas and Audra with a smile on her face, when she was in the circle at Ostwick. She had a band of friends, not like the ones she had now more of a clique, it was the years ago when she was barely sixteen. She had managed to steal some of the First enchanter's alcohol, wine whiskey even a bottle of rum. They all sat on the bunk she shared with her best friend and on the bunk parallel to it. The other apprentices would be in the mess hall, getting as close to celebration as they could.

They sat, giggling, with a small candle as their only light. They passed around the bottles, the girl next to her, her best friend, passed her the bottle of rum. She took a swig from it, she made a face at the taste, the girl giggled.

"_Sorry, should have warned you."_ her voice whispered from across the years, the sixteen year old Inquisitor would then just pull her into a hug. Yes, she remembered that Wintersend, it was a joyous time they drank themselves silly and soon passed out on the beds. The next day was her best friend's harrowing, her name was Fleur she used to be so beautiful had the darkest hair you'd ever seen, and she didn't survive her Harrowing.

"Dark raven black hair, big hazel eyes, she was always enticing others to help her with her pranks or adventures around the Circle. Could've done something, if I hadn't of stolen those bottles from the First Enchanter if I hadn't of let her have so much. It wasn't your fault," she didn't have to turn around to know it was Cole, she smiled sadly and shook her head.

"I could have of done something, Cole, if I had just made her see that we should've gone with the other apprentices. She would be alive, perhaps she would even be here."

"She was never going to listen, she was determined to have a night of fun before her Harrowing, she knew she wasn't going to survive it and she knew it would be soon. That's why she wanted one last night to have fun." She remembered the fun they had that night, like it was yesterday.

"_Fleur, we can barely walk straight,"_ she giggled.

After everyone else had wandered off or passed out Fleur took her hand and ran her to the mages quarters. She began riffling through one of the chests, who was it? Jean, now she remembered, Fleur pulled her towards the chest, and she finally found the treasure she had been looking for.

"_Aha! I knew it, he couldn't have of had such a shiny bald head for no reason_!" she somehow had a mixture of whispering and shouting to the heavens, that was Fleur, she was her own kind of person. She pressed the bottle of polish into her hands and pulled out another bottle, while the first one was a light pinkish colour this one was white. She popped the corks on both bottles; she filled the pink bottle with the white liquid and placed it in the same spot back in the chest. The next week Jean's scalp was a bright pink.

"You couldn't look at him afterwards, it reminded you too much of Fleur, but you need to let it go, it wasn't your fault."

The next thing they did was go back to the First Enchanter's study, Fleur went through the books on the shelves.

"_Check her desk and chest; you'll know what we're looking for when you see it_"

"_That doesn't make sense, how am I supposed to know?_" she did it anyway, if only to humour her, she found a few things files on the apprentices she saw her own, then… Fleur's. "_Fleur, is this it?" _she waved the file over her head, Fleur snatched it up hungrily, she leafed through it searching for something. Her grin widened, she folded the file as small as she possibly could then put it in the pocket on her robes.

"_C'mon, there' are a few others waiting for us._" Fleur took her hand, back to the mages quarters, tripping over their robes more than a few times, not the apprentice quarters. At the time it surprised her.

"You helped her find her family, they didn't visit her, and she wrote those letters that her mentor sent them. They were ashamed of her."

"Yes," she remembered getting leave from the First Enchanter to go with Fleur's mentor to deliver the letters. They had invited them in at first, they hadn't realised who they were, when Fleur's mentor gave them the letters the man shouted at them, told them to leave that they had no daughter. The woman simply cried, and tossed the letters into the fire, she had hated that woman for that.

They didn't even read them, but she had.

When they arrived back at the mages quarters they were occupied, two women, their names were on the tip of her tongue she just couldn't remember, and they greeted Fleur readily enough. They were twins by the looks of it, they handed Fleur a few things before trying to usher us out of the room. But soon enough her hand was grabbed by an elven mage, he was cute enough she supposed, she could almost- wait this man was that former Dalish, he was ousted from his clan.

He pulled her towards the centre on the group of mages that had formed; he was barely a few years older than she was, he pulled her into a dance, the steps to said dance she learned on the spot, he twirled her around pulled her in, spun her out. Then at the end, he dipped her, she laughed. This was the Ostwick Circle, the most peaceful place on the continent, and she was drunk while dancing with a handsome elven man. Fleur grinned at her from the edges of the group.

"_Just a little push was all they needed_." She thought no one would hear her, but she did, and despite it she had never felt more joyful that she was her friend.

"I could make you forget," the offer came from out of nowhere, she smiled at Cole.

"No, I need these."

..

She found him later, after Fleur had died he was there, they danced for one night then suddenly he was just _there_. Almost like he had always been there. But she found him, after her Harrowing, he comforted her, told her, she remembered the exact words, that the demon was a jackass who may as well go rot in the black city because if he stepped one stupid demon foot out of it he would be crushed to a pulp repeatedly.

Maker she loved that man, after her Harrowing after he said those words he held her and played with her hair. She played with one of the few things that Fleur used to own, it was a simple necklace, no doubt enchanted, it was just a circle with her name engraved in the middle. But it reminded her of the friend she had lost, and of the lover she had gained because of her.

His name was Eth'Era

..

"What do you think of Audra, Cole?"

"She's older than she acts, older than she looks and yet not at the same time. She's happy, she thinks that it's best to enjoy the time she has with him than focus on how it will end. There's too much despair inside her, guilt and shame rolled up into one, but she ignores it. She doesn't want help, she hopes that eventually it'll get too much and she'll just end or it'll go away. But at the same time she just wants to enjoy the time she has."

"What about Solas?"

"He's old too, like her, he loves her but he's hesitant, but less so because there's nothing to distract her from. Nothing that he knows of anyway."

"Audra is right, we should enjoy the time we have now. Thank you, Cole, I need to- I need to go talk to someone." She smiled at him before she left; she walked as fast as she could to the garden, the morning sun-that it was still morning surprised her- almost blinded her.

She walked towards the centre of the garden; she'd started a small garden of her own there. She usually tended to it at night; she was meant to be a leader, a fearless figure for them to follow not a woman who harvested herbs and flowers in the moonlight. She recited the herbs and flowers in her head.

_Rue for Fleur_

_Roses for haven_

_Lilies for Eth'Era _

_Tigerlily of the Inquisition_

_Thyme for Redcliffe_

_Croton for the Wardens_

_Hyacinth for herself_

She watered them, whispered to them as she often did, once all was said and done she made a hole near the Rue, she placed Fleur's locket within and walked away with a heavy heart.

..

Hawke remembered a year or so after she won back the Amell estate how she had invited her own inner circle over to the estate for Wintersend. Hawke remembered seeing her friends walking into the estate and seeing all this _colour_ she had also put this massive tree in the middle of the main room and had decorated it with these floating glowing orbs. Anders had helped her with that, her magic was more inclined to burn or freeze everything, and if she had done it on her own the estate would have burned. Anders' magic had a more gentle touch.

"In awe, Varric?" Hawke appeared from the top of the stairs, at the time she had been wearing a simple red silk dress the one her mother had forced her into, at the moment Leandra had cornered Anders and was attempting to 'make him look less like a starved deep stalker especially if he plans on dating her eldest daughter' she wasn't even aware her mother knew what deepstalkers _were_.

"I'll admit Blondie has some talent, I'd imagine you would have rather burned the place down." She grinned at him.

"You know our luck, Varric, if I had burned the place down I could have claimed the tree came to life and tried to kill Barkspawn and everyone would have believed me." she shrugged, she made her way down the steps cursing the dress under her breath the whole way down. She grinned as walked through the door. "Do I need to change the locks _again_?_"_

"It was unlocked this time!" Isabela defended herself with a grin.

"I'm pretty sure Bodahn made sure it was locked behind me, Rivaini." It was at this moment that Anders decided to snake his arms around Hawke's waist. He certainly smelled better, better than 'I'm an apostate mage who lives in darktown and when I visit my lover I leave my dirty socks everywhere'.

Later that night it wasn't a surprise that they ended up in bed, seriously, those two are like rabbits.

..

After a while Audra had managed to 'escape' Solas with minimal clothing removed, surprisingly, she'd pay for her tricks later. But for now she was getting drunk. She downed glass after glass of ale and rum, Loke was just staring at her like she was crazy.

"Either this was the fastest relationship you've ever had or you believe the answer to all the world's problems lies on the bottom of any one of these glasses." He held his head up with his hand, "Or is your elf too much of a gentleman to ravage your body while your drunk?"

"N- Well yes- but no!" she stopped drinking to place her hands on either side of his face. "Alcohol is fun, Loke, its fun!"

**I have discovered a pattern in Dragon Age games, in every game my best friend/lover at some point has left and or done something stupid.**

**Morrigan left, bestfriend**

**Isabela leaves (forever or for a short amount of time) bestfriend**

**Anders (Blew up a chantry) lover**

**Seneschal Varel (stupidly takes a hit for me) bestfriend**

**Solas leaves, lover.**

**CONSPIRACY **


	6. Chapter 6

**And we take a break from our current story to bring you something slightly different from a completely different version of reality**

This wasn't real, this _couldn't_be real, no way on earth was this real.

_But it had to be._

Nope, this wasn't acceptable; no way would this be acceptable.

_This wasn't her, but it was._

After all I did randomly appear in Thedas, Haven to be specific, as a completely different race, elves aren't meant to be real, a race and world that weren't meant to be real; I was however still in her normal clothes so thank the goddess for small mercies.

I am, currently, on my knees, hands covering my ears, head as close to the ground as I could get it. I squeezed my eyes tight, someone placed a hand on my shoulder and I panicked. I scrambled away, trying to get as far away as possible, I got to my feet. It grabbed a fist full of my hair, not at the scalp the ends, I needed something to remind me that this all was real and if I didn't come up with a reasonable lie now I would more than likely get shot-er- stabbed I mean.

My eyes flashed to the people around me, Cassandra, Leliana citizens, Elven mage-Solas?- watching too far away to see details. Stairs behind me -the gates to Haven maybe- could run if things get too heated, get across the lake maybe crack it behind me somehow, staves have blades on the end enough force would crack it.

I looked down at my bare arm; my sleeve-uh tattoo sleeve- was still there, so that would mean only the shape of my ears was changed, along with a slight height difference.

I looked to my left, a ladder and some crates; I could climb right over the wall once on top of those crates. But the fall though, snow might soften it but I had no idea what was actually behind that wall. Bones would be broken, or ankles twisted, it would probably save me whatever they decided to do to me.

Cassandra drew her sword and stepped towards me, I ran towards the crates, with a surprisingly clear mind considering-adrenaline more likely than not- I clambered quickly over the wall, an arrow shot past my ear and another went through my jacket, it didn't hit me but it was too close for comfort. I jumped, but my foot caught on the wall making me smack my head on the way down, I also landed rather painfully on something that broke a rib judging by the crack and cut through my clothes down my side to my knee. Then it went black.

..

I woke at the morgue; I shook my head to clear it, too many wild daydreams. I motioned for the girl here for work experience to bring in the next body. It was gruesome work, I'd never get over the smell but it meant that families got closure and the sick people who killed the victims got put behind bars or where ever else they needed to go.

This one was young, barely fourteen, bruises decorated her pale skin. There was frothing at the mouth.

"Bruises on face, sternum, neck and arms, frothing at mouth indicating poison. Why would someone try to choke her and then poison her? what would be the point?" I spoke into the small recording device I've always carried with me, it was always good to look over the days findings again later.

I went over the usual procedures, then grabbed the scalpel and began to make a Y incision on down the girl's body. My eyes flicked upwards half way through cutting the girl's skin; I jumped and dropped the scalpel.

"Fuck, you- you're" I struggled to form anymore words other than "fuck". I placed a hand over her heart, the man-elf rather- looked at the girl's body for a few minutes before asking softly.

"Who is she?" I looked at the girl, and then I remembered.

"Atlanta 1995, Lilianne Harding, her father abused her, she tried to kill herself. Her mother had no idea, being halfway across the world." I stroked the girl's hair, and then I frowned."Who are you?"

"My name is Solas, might I know your name?" I brushed a strand of hair behind my ear, I felt the tip of my ear, now pointed.

"My name, thanks to my foolish parents, is Omega Hael." I smiled weakly at him, if he was here then either I have a really vivid imagination or that whole thing in Haven was real.

I am so screwed

"Miss Hael-"I raised a hand to stop him from going any further.

"Omega, please, and if this is about Haven I ran because some crazy woman came at me with a _sword_."

"Omega, do you know how you _arrived_ in Haven?" emphasise on the word arrived, possible indication of unusual means, and then again I did just randomly appear in Haven.

"Uhh, physics? Man, I don't know! Why do you think I was freaking out?" I threw my hands in the air and paced, he was annoying calm why it annoys me? Well I don't know!

"You stepped through a Fade Rift, like the Herald did, why do you think Cassandra was suspicious." I paused; well actually I froze completely, so this was actually the Fade, could I shape it perhaps?

I focused on my cat; she was a cute little thing, a sphinx or whatever they were called. Isis, her name, was actually really affectionate, cute little bugger, but she always wanted to go outside which meant buying sunscreen, a lot of it.

I was silent for a few minutes, just focusing on my cat, Solas seemed to grow suspicious he stepped towards me then Isis-or a reflection of her- rubbed itself against his legs and purred, loudly.

"Ha!" I cried out scooping the cat up in my arms, "who's a good kitty for existing? You are!" I glanced at Solas then back to my cat then looked at him properly. "What? Oh, Fade Rift thing, well if you'll just take a look around." I waved my arm around, "you'll find that this looks like nothing you've seen before, yes?"

"That, that would be a correct assumption, yes."

"Well, let me tell you something that will blow your socks off! You are wearing socks right?" I looked down at his feet, he was not. "eh, your um, it'll blow your mind! I. Don't. Originate. From. Thedas." There, more likely than not he would think I was crazy and force me to run for the hills.

"How did you get the cat?"

"Here? In the Fade? I just focused; I was a lucid dreamer, or still am. Making things appear in dreams is easy once you know how to do it, and if you don't fear sleep paralysis."

"Sleep paralysis? You seem to be able to walk." I smiled at him, then put down the cat.

"That's not what it is, if you try to become a lucid dreamer more often than not you'll get sleep paralysis at some point, you'll wake up and you won't be able to move, you start having hallucinations of monster, demons some might say. It is the most frightening experience I've ever had." I shuddered, remembering the feeling of being unable to move, unable to scream, it was strong it seems for we both saw how it had been. Demons and all.

"And you underwent becoming a lucid dreamer willingly, did you know about this before hand?"

"Of course I did! I researched it as thoroughly as possible talked to people who went through it themselves! I did everything I could." I was facing him directly now, practically shouting right into his face.

"Yet you did it anyway, how long ago was this?"

"Last year, it comes back every so often, there's nothing I can do about it." More visions of sleep paralysis, then the most recent one, flashes of a familiar shade of green, he was quiet for a while.

"You literally willed yourself into Thedas."

"What? Oh no I didn't! I have done no such thing. You don't know shit about me, what I have done or how I got here!"

"Didn't you see? You were able to move in that last one! You fell through the Rift!" I turned away from him raised my hands to my head, there was no way that was what had happened and no way would we know this so soon! Usually in every book I've read or anything having this sort of stuff it is revealed at the end or somewhere in the middle because it doesn't really have any relevance to the plot.

"So, moving on, where has Cassandra locked me up?"

"You're in one of the cells in Haven's chantry."

"Figures, why not lock something away when you have no idea what it is or where it came from?"

"I wouldn't exactly call you an it?"

"Unless you've seen me naked you wouldn't know whether I'm a man, a woman, or an it."

"Well, I had to dress your wounds somehow." You know those poker face memes? That is the most accurate way I could describe our faces right now, other than me furiously blushing. "You have… rather interesting tattoos."

_Nope. Not happening right now. This is awfully embarrassing, he can't actually be serious! Can he?_

Then I woke up, thank the goddess for small mercies.

..

I gasped, it was cold overly cold, like too cold for a white single and jeans- hell it'd be too cold even if I still had my jacket which was curiously missing- the iron chaffing and freezing my wrists didn't help either. I pulled against the chains keeping me to the wall, I noticed Solas was sleeping not too far from me, unchained on a bed roll, ass. I heard voices coming from the other side of the door.

"You can't just chain her up Cassandra! The poor woman was probably frightened half to death enough without you coming at her with a sword." That voice was vaguely familiar, wait- ah- Inquisitor, British voice setting I believe.

"Herald, she appeared out of a Rift, she could be a demon."

"I did too, Cassandra, you calling me a demon?" the door opened, I tried to appear as calm as possible and totally succeeded. "See Cassandra? She's terrified."

"Godamnit."

"I like her already." The Inquisitor-Herald really, haven't found Skyhold yet- declared, she grinned at me. She glanced at Solas, "ass" I like her already.

"Please tell me you aren't thinking of taking her with you to Redcliffe?" if she did I would have to fight, that would mean one of two things, one, learn how to fight with daggers preferably or two describe the art of tessenjutsu. Tessenjutsu is a form of martial arts that uses fighting fans my parents, being erratic as they are, got me into learning the art even made me fighting fans. Which should have of been on me, considering I was pretty sure that I was _in my car_ and not under the effects of _sleep paralysis_. Unless Solas implied that I sleep in my car, which I don't.

"I don't even know if she wants to! Let alone if she can fight, which I doubt." Oh she did not.

"I can fight," I interjected, Solas was awake now, I was painfully aware of his every movement, "have you ever heard of tessenjutsu" I knew they hadn't, their confused faces confirmed this. "Alright, before I explain I have to ask, was anything with me when I- er- appeared?"

"There was a bag, Leliana should have it." My face brightened up, that means not only were my fighting fans here with me but so were the clothes I trained in, which would be a might warmer than what I wore currently.

"Good, there should be metal fans in there; it'll be easier to explain when they're here. In my hands. Preferably soon. Like now."

"Bossy" the Herald tsked before grinning again, she ran out of the room. Hopefully to get my goddamn fans. But sadly this also left me alone with Cassandra, who scared me now that she was here in the flesh.

I'm scared, send help pls.

**End! For now**


	7. Chapter 7

This was awkward.

She's just _glaring_

It's like I insulted Swords and Shields or something.

Solas was just doing his thing, no doubt coming up with insults that everyone would realise were insult hours later after he said them.

Including me for that manner, I've been studying their every move.

Cassandra's on the defensive, Solas seems to believe that I'm not a threat.

"I have them!" the Inquisitor either had a bunch of coffee- they have coffee here right, right? - Or they were actually a man-child, woman-child. Cassandra unshackled me, and passed me my fans, in flicked them. They responded to my touch brilliantly, I would have thought- eh never mind.

"Mmm, perfect, would you prefer a simple demonstration or an active one?" I asked, lightly fanning myself with them, they are multipurpose after all.

"An 'active demonstration'?"

"The place where I learnt how to use these had two forms of demonstrations with one differing factor, with an opponent or without. An active demonstration means the opponent is out for blood, a simple one means there is no opponent. 'There will never be an in between in life and there shall be no such things here'." I quoted, practically my teacher's motto those words were, and she reminded me of a Stark.

"An active one then, you're no use to us if you can't handle actual battle." Cassandra interjected before the Inquisitor could say anything, slightly put out the Inquisitor nodded.

"Solas, would you?" the Inquisitor didn't need to say anymore for the meaning to be clear, there would be mages at Redcliffe if this was a trap then they would be attacked by mages. I needed to be able to fight against mages. He nodded grabbing his staff of the ground beside him.

I folded my right wrist over my left, my fans fully extended; I raised them up to my face my teacher would have been yelling at me for starting with this. Too goddamn bad.

He started casting at me, I swayed and twisted out of the way of his spells, I even managed to deflect a few with the fans. I had seen some templar defenders-I think they were called that- with these massive shields that deflected spells, considering these were metal fans I thought these might do the same thing, and I was totally right, glorious.

I smacked him across the face with one of my fans, and then got behind him. One fan up against his throat, the other pressed into his back. These fans were sharp, after a particularly vicious training session my clothes were little more than rags, the only reason I wasn't cut into tiny pieces was because my teacher had excellent control.

I leaned up close to his ear, my smile evident in my voice.

"Dead, alright again." I went back to where I started, this time taking a more offensive stance, this drill was aggressive and instead of 'killing' him right away I confess I toyed with him. I knocked his staff aside and jabbed a closed fan softly into his stomach. We went through several drills, until-and I still have no idea how- he managed to pin me to the wall.

"Dead." he leaned in close to my ear, close enough for him to touch my ear, and he did, it was then that I noticed he wasn't scrawny under those robes-don't even go there Omega- he was felt _lean _and considering the top half of his robes was ripped to shreds he looked it too. Oh, now I remember how he distracted me, my ears felt hot, so did my face. But that was just the exertion, trust me.

"You seem capable enough, feel like going on an adventure to Redcliffe?" The Inquisitor grinned at me completely expecting me to say yes, a normal sensible person in a normal sensible world would say no.

"Why not, I don't have anything else planned for the next five years." I shrugged, and then I remembered that Solas hadn't moved, that made me blush again.

"Alright, Solas could you take her to the smithy? Get her some armour?" in my opinion this would give Solas to be more forward, he was acting very forward, very predator like- wait, oh, yeah.

I stood there awkwardly for a while, he just watched kind of creepy and endearing, god did I really just say endearing? What is happening to me?

"So, are we going to get me fitted for some armour or are you going to just stand there and if so-"_can I kiss you_ was what I was going to say before he interrupted me, so rude. Ugh, but probably for the best, if I kissed him I would miss him when I got back to my own world. This is actually surprisingly simpler than media would depict.

"Sorry, you're right we should get going, forgive me." he jumped away as if I had burnt him.

"It's fine, we should get moving though, what time is it?" I rubbed my wrists, they hurt like hell.

"Sometime in the early morning, here let me help." He grabbed my hands, not roughly though I did wince. Nothing was broken, just raw slightly bloody skin, knowing that doesn't stop it from hurting though.

It felt like cool water moving over my wrists, utterly smooth and refreshing. My wrists healed, it was only a minor injury but it was kind of him.

"Thank you," I took a deep breath and smiled at him, I motioned for him to lead the way, even though I knew where the smithy was. I tucked my fans into my pants, nowhere else to put them, and by the goddess was it cold, it was snowing for crying out loud! I swear if he looked back at me shivering I would die, figuratively. Luckily he didn't, he was either blissfully ignorant of the weather or he could read minds. Oh this just gets better and better, it also makes zero sense, this stuff only happens in fanfiction and really weird books!

When we got to the smithy I was quickly measured and tossed a set of armour, pre made, I blinked a couple of times that actually happened pretty fast with no embarrassment what so ever. Oh I just want to go back to the morgue and have a nice normal day. I looked at the armour, a leather-what was it called- corset thing-y, hardened leather pants and a badass long coat thing. It didn't make me look like batman but it did make me look badass. There were two small hooks where I could hang my fans on the inside of the coat, sweet! For now I just shrugged on the coat and hung my fans, I could change into the other stuff later, once I wasn't in a public place, or within five feet of Solas.

"So, what happens now?" I turned to Solas, his mouth quirked into a smile.

"We go meet up with the Herald, and hope she doesn't have a plan that will get us killed."

..

Soon I was given back my bag, it had my training clothes in it, my phone which was useless other than for music, my earphones few other doo-dads –such as portable phone chargers I knew that was a good investment- and of course-my favourite item of all- a metal slinky. I am going to have so much fun on Skyhold's stairs!

..

So I met Sera, she's pretty weird in person, kind of fun I guess?

..

She did in fact have a plan that would get us killed; we went with her anyway, she seemed eager to test me out.

So I ended up killing people, I _killed _people.

I sat facing the campfire, everyone else seems to be sleeping, I wiped the tears from my face with the back of my hand.

I had ended lives, they had people who _cared _for them, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters and I had _murdered _them.

Someone laid a hand on my shoulder, Solas had crouched down behind me, I hung my head.

"You must think me pitiful, a woman displaced and now upset over the deaths she has caused." I couldn't keep the bitterness, or the despair, out of my voice. I stood up as quickly as I could, I grabbed my phone, keeping both it and my hand in the deep pocket of the trench coat.

"Omega-"he began, no doubt to reassure me or to agree that I was pitiful.

"I'm going for a run, I'll be back." I plugged in my earphones, started walking, and turned on my phone. The first song that came up was Yesterday, by the Beatles, I did not need sad songs now, I scrolled through until I found Ain't No Rest for the Wicked, by Cage the Elephant. I put it on repeat and started running.

_I was walkin' down the street  
>When out the corner of my eye<br>I saw a pretty little thing approaching me  
>She said, "I never seen a man<br>Who looked so all alone  
>Oh could you use a little company<em>?

I ran past trees, ran with a Fennec for a while before it buggered off.

_And if you pay the right price  
>Your evening will be nice<br>And you can go and send me on my way."  
>I said, "You're such a sweet young thing<br>Why you do this to yourself?"  
>She looked at me and this is what she said<em>

I heard wolves in the distance; I unfortunately hadn't had the good sense to keep my weapons _with _me. I cursed mentally and kept running.

_Oh, there ain't no rest for the wicked  
>Money don't grow on trees<br>I got bills to pay  
>I got mouths to feed<br>And ain't nothing in this world for free  
>No I can't slow down<br>I can't hold back  
>Though you know I wish I could<br>No there ain't no rest for the wicked  
>Until we close our eyes for good<em>

Indeed there was no rest for the wicked; I wouldn't be sleeping for some time. Goddess, what have I gotten myself into, I had all these conflicting memories of how I got here. They can't all be true.

_Not even 15 minutes later  
>I'm still walkin' down the street<br>When I saw the shadow of a man creep out of sight  
>And then he swept up from behind<br>He put a gun up to my head  
>He made it clear he wasn't lookin' for a fight<em>

A large black wolf ran with me, at first I totally freaked the hell out adrenaline made me run faster but it didn't move to attack it just kept pace.

"Fuck you, Solas." He growled at me, _growled at me. _I unplugged the headphones, may as well both hear the song.

_He said give me all you got  
>I want your money not your life<br>But if you try to make a move I won't think twice  
>I told him you can have my cash<br>But first you know I gotta ask  
>What made you wanna live this kind of life?<br>He said_

He looked at me as if to say, _this is the crap you listen to?_

_Oh, there ain't no rest for the wicked  
>Money don't grow on trees<br>I got bills to pay  
>I got mouths to feed<br>And ain't nothing in this world for free  
>No I can't slow down<br>I can't hold back  
>Though you know I wish I could<br>No there ain't no rest for the wicked  
>Until we close our eyes for good<em>

_Well now a couple hours passed  
>And I was sitting in my house<br>The day was winding down and coming to an end  
>So I turned to the TV<br>And flipped it over to the news  
>And what I saw I almost couldn't comprehend<em>

"Do not insult my taste in music, Solas, or I will get Sera to fill your _tent _with lizards this time." I'd do it too; even if he doesn't know it I would so do it.

_I saw a preacher man in cuffs  
>He'd taken money from the church<br>He'd stuff his bank account with righteous dollar bills  
>But even still I can't say much<br>Because I know we're all the same  
>Oh yes we all seek out to satisfy those thrills<em>

We just kept running, eventually we could hear running water, a stream perhaps?

_You know there ain't no rest for the wicked  
>Money don't grow on trees<br>We got bills to pay  
>We got mouths to feed<br>And ain't nothing in this world for free  
>No we can't slow down<br>We can't hold back  
>Though you know we wish we could<br>No there ain't no rest for the wicked  
>Until we close our eyes for good<em>

Soon we reached a pool with a waterfall, close enough I say, Solas, still in his wolf form, went straight to the pool and lapped up water. I couldn't stop myself from snickering, then total laughter. I paused my music quickly, according to the counter thing-y I installed we had gone through the song about twenty times or so, but it could have of been longer or shorter the counter doesn't work well all the time.

I knelt down beside the pool, looking away when he reverted to his human form, sadly there were still clothes-no bad Omega down girl- , he wore only a tunic and pants, and he has some aversion to shoes I am unaware of. I scooped up some water in my hands and raised it to my mouth.

"Hypocrite," I smiled and instead of drinking the water I dropped it and splashed him. It was freezing too, so sucks to be him.

"You-"he didn't even finish before he used his magic to dump a football sized orb of water over my head.

"Cheater!" I gasped, I pushed him into the pool and he dragged me in with him, goddess it was so fucking _cold_. I raised a hand to my mouth to muffle my shriek, "you ass!"

.

**To be continued, once I get some sleep.**


	8. Chapter 8

**I've been doing Christmas stuff all day, so a little later than usual.**

**Are you ready? Here we go, one quick thing before we continue with Omega :D**

_She says, "You don't want to be like me  
>Don't wanna see all the things I've seen."<br>I'm dying, I'm dying  
>She says, "You don't want to get this way<br>Famous and dumb at an early age."  
>Lying, I'm lying<em>

Carmen, Lana Del Rey

**..**

**Lavellan**

Ten years

Ten years since Solas had left

Ten years old their son and daughter turned this day, Lavellan turned to the young boy as he ran towards her through the gardens, her daughter already at her side.

Bellanaris clung to her mother's shirt, Lavellan reached down to embrace her son, Enasal. She pulled both of her beautiful children towards the main hall, a smile on her lips; the hall had been cleared for the day. Only a few select friends of both the Inquisitor and her children were permitted into the hall.

A year or so ago she had asked Cullen to trained her children in combat, so that when she died they were able to defend themselves, when Bellanaris' magic surfaced she and Dorian shared the blessing of teaching her, she kept it secret from even her advisors for fear she'd lose her daughter. For now she showed an affinity for ice and, as if it was in her blood, and ever growing curiosity about the Fade and the spirits that dwelled within. It had broken her heart when she couldn't answer all of her questions about the Fade, had Solas been there.

**Solas**

When he turned his attention in the Fade to Skyhold, he wasn't surprised that he could still see his Vhenan's bright spark still there; he was however surprised by the two other sparks, the sparks that matched his Vhenan's in their light.

His curiosity had gotten the better of him, and though it broke his heart again to be so close to her and yet unable to speak to her, unable to touch her, he did not regret what he learnt. His only regret was that he left her alone with a broken heart to raise two children,

He'd observed from a distance his daughter's dreams, he'd felt pride she talked to spirits around her, and he'd grown fearful when she'd even talked to demons. To his surprise, though it was clear what they wanted she managed to remain herself, only when she'd drawn the attention of a desire demon did he intervene.

"Da'len," he barely managed to choke to word out, when Bellanaris turned to him he was astonished at how much she looked like her mother, and how much she acted like him. Bellanaris' face brightened up when she saw him.

"Papa!" she cried, she ran and embraced him, as if sensing his confusion she explained hwo she knew who he was, "Mamae, she showed me her memories; she loves you still even as she forgets a small detail everyday she remembers." She seemed so much older than she was her posture, her manner in which she spoke. She was a beautiful girl; he felt pride for having a part in making her.

"Ar lath na mamae," she paused to translate his words in her head, the side of his mouth quirked, fo his Vhenan had been teaching her their native tongue.

"Enasal was angry when Mamae told us of you, he said he'd hurt you like you hurt Mamae if you 'dared show your face'. I don't think Mamae was very happy with him after that." She screwed up her face, he chuckled at how cute she was.

"I'd dare say she'd want to hurt me herself."

"No, she… what did she say? She said 'I understand now why he left and who he truly is, it doesn't make me love him any less'. Something like that." She _knew_, how did she know? How _could_ she know? Fear gripped his heart.

**Lavellan**

She hadn't expected it, one moment she'd left the children to scavenge for the gifts she- and various others- had bought for them, the next she was in _his _arms again simply enjoying his warmth her face buried in his chest. She pulled away long enough to slap him.

"Don't you _dare _leave like that ever again!" she pulled him back to her, he kissed the top of her head.

"Na nuvenin ma nuvenin."

**..**

We got back from Redcliffe, assaulted the Breach, then the Red Templars attacked. It was bloody and gruesome, Trevelyan, even though I knew she wouldn't die, it just seemed hopeless. Like we had truly lost her, I felt like _we _had damned her.

**..**

"Hopefully Dorian will manage to keep Trevelyan from destroying everything while I go clean myself." I picked my bag up again.

"Alone?"

"Coming on a little strong there aren't you, Solas?" I rested a hand on my hip, grinning at his back.

"I- that's not what I meant, you shouldn't go alone, maybe you should wait for Trevelyan to-"

"Trevelyan is going to take forever to crash from her sugar high, and then she'll sleep. Why don't you wat- I mean, keep watch for me?" _Smooth, Omega, real smooth._ "I'd… I'd feel safer with you there." Not a lie exactly, more a slight stretch of the truth, in all honesty I shouldn't feel safe anywhere no matter who was with me, much less Fen'Harel.

"Ma nuvenin." _Victory!_ I grinned and let him lead the way to the stream, carrying my bag over my shoulder. It wasn't long before we heard the sound of rushing water, a rock were Solas-depending on what direction he faced- would have an excellent view of me was placed not too far away from the edge of the stream. I placed my bag down beside it; I quickly stripped and stepped into the water.

At this point I didn't really care how cold it was, I just liked being _clean_.

"So, Solas, looking forward to Val Royeaux?" I asked content to just wash the blood that had dried in my hair. I wrinkled my nose at the site.

"It should prove interesting," short, vague, not what I was looking for, never mind.

"Just 'interesting'? Don't you have any plans? Places you want to see? People you want to meet?"

"I have no such plans, what about you?"

"I… I don't know that much about Val Royeaux, I'll probably just wander around looking lost until I find a bookstore or something similar, then I'll spend the rest of my time there."

"Not interested in the latest fashions worn by the empress Celene herself?" was he mocking me? I turned and glared at his back.

"Ma serannas, messere Solas, I'll be sure to change my personality completely the next time we talk so that I can better meet your expectations of a woman such as I." I said dryly, turning away from him. "But no, if it won't stop a demon from cutting me in half I'm not going to waste money on it."

"I apologise, I didn't mean to insinuate-"I laughed, cutting him off quickly.

"Its fine, Solas, you'll have to work harder than that to offend me. To do so, start a sentence about telling the truth and then say your face, that'll be bound to upset me." I, once again, felt clean enough to step out of the water. I dried myself with the towel Trevelyan had lent me few weels-by the goddess, it had been weeks hadn't it? If I could see the me that lived back where I came from and who I am now side by side there'd be innumerable differences, posture would be one.

"I'll keep that in mind, Da'len." Oh look my heart fluttered again; maybe I'm having a heart attack, sounds reasonable, I pulled on my shirt and pants making sure that the blush creeping over my face wasn't visible.

"Do you want me to…?" I trailed off; I didn't really know what to call it, I mean, it wasn't a _bath _so I couldn't quite call it bathing, saying 'get clean' felt weird and I'm just out of things to call it.

"If you would," he hopped off of his rock, I watched-as unhappy as I am to admit it- _hungrily_ as he took his shirt off, he caught me looking and motioned for me to turn around.

"I can't help it, Solas; you're completely irresistible however do you deal with all these women, and no doubt men, falling over at your feet?" I obligingly turned around, my hands clasped over my knees.

"It's a challenge I must face every day."

"Oh do tell me more, oh great one, I long to hear you speak, I hang upon your every word." As soon as I was sure he was in the water I turned around again, he was facing a way from me, and the water went up to his waist still leaving a lot of muscle to please the eye. "Anyway, Solas, you _must_ have some interesting tales or ruins stored in that magnificent head of yours please regale me with them if you would."

"I once met a spirit of Justice…"

..

I listened with rapt attention; we were there for an hour and a half before Trevelyan decided to go looking for us. By then we were both sitting on the rock and-though it seems silly to point out now- our knees were touching, the fact that I _touched_ him sends my heart into overdrive; I swear he'll give me a heart attack.

Afterwards we rejoined Dorian, who was not enthused he'd been left to make sure the horses didn't run off. He complained some about not getting the smell of horse manure out of his clothes, but settled quickly.

I riffled through my bag for my phone, which I had managed to keep relatively hidden from the others, but it seemed to have the same effect as me explaining where I came from, it simply vanished from others memories, which I admit is starting to grate on me.

I found it rather quickly, not surprising really I don't have a lot of things in my bag, I was delaying going to our tent.

I glanced over my shoulder when Solas exited the tent; I turned back to my bag, I _had _managed to score some actual wine from the Tavern in Haven I had needed it desperately, so I pulled it out of my bag.

"Omega?" I turned to Solas hiding the bottle of wine behind my back, he tried to see what I was holding.

"Is something the matter, Solas?" I asked, keeping the wine relatively well hidden behind my back.

"If we're to be arriving in Val Royeaux tomorrow it'd- I'd thought it'd be best for you to get as much sleep as you can. Is everything alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine, I'll be along shortly." I fully intended to drain the bottle before going to sleep, Solas walked right up to me.

"Da'len," he placed a hand on my shoulder and turned me around to grab the bottle, he raised an eyebrow at me.

"Oh don't look at me like that, it's been a trying day I've had to deal with you for starters." I poked him in the chest, smiling, _smiling to diffuse the situation before anything got out of hand. _I threw one arm around his neck, and grabbed the bottle back. "Come on, I'll share."

..

That's how we got drunk and I fell asleep with my head on his shoulder, I woke up with a headache, but was too lazy to get up to do anything, even when I realised that I was _on _Solas and that he too was awake and playing with my hair. Well one hand was his other arm was stopping me from moving away.

It felt… nice, just laying there, comforting, despite the raging headache. It wouldn't last forever, but it could last. He _kissed _the top of my head, he actually kissed the top of my head!

"Aneth ara."

**Fin.**


	9. Chapter 9

**My bracelet broke today so now I'm kind of just staring at my wrist, it feels almost naked without it, and it's a heavy bugger too. It feels **_**weird **_

**Also, Merrill! I have no idea how to write characters that aren't my own.**

That was Solas' voice; my eyes shot to the tent flap, an elven woman-Dalish by the looks of her- had poked her head in.

"Oh, I didn't wake you did I? Trevelyan asked me to make sure you were awake before 'she dumped the entire river on their heads'." Her imitation of Trevelyan's voice was… surprisingly accurate and hilarious.

"Then we'd best hurry before she drowns us." She left us to our own devices, I reluctantly sat up, and lifted myself off of him; I ran a hand through my hair. Attempting to ignore the pain in my head, it wasn't easy as it hurt like fucking hell.

"You know, Solas, I think you should rethink exploring the Fade. You'd make a killing as a professional pillow." _Oh do not start, Omega, you'd never be able to back out._

"I'm sure you say that to all the boys." He laughed as I pulled off my night shirt and pulled on the white long sleeved blouse I'd acquired in Redcliffe. He helped me adjust the buckles holding the bloody thing together.

"I can't help it if I'm surrounded by handsome elves such as you all the time." I threw on my coat; apparently our camp had been visited by several city elves and a few Dalish over night. Trevelyan was talking with the Dalish who had been in our tent minutes before, deciding to go meddle in their affairs I jogged over to them.

"Ah, so you're finally awake, had your share of fun last night?" Trevelyan grinned at me with an eyebrow raised; I kept my face void of any emotion.

"I've no idea what you mean, Lady Inquisitor, I slept like a rock."

"Oh please, we see how you two look at each other."

"We talk a lot, usually when you're talking with someone it is polite to make eye-contact, surely a noble woman such as yourself would know this, Lady Trevelyan."

"It's not just when you talk, haven't you noticed? Sometimes he just _stares_." Staring? Probably nothing, more than likely its nothing,

"You sound like a child!" I rolled my eyes at her and turned my attention to the Dalish woman who seemed content to just watch the elven children playing.

"Anyway, this is Merrill she's been keeping these Elven refugees out of the sight of the Templars. You'll remember that I sent her to interrupt any strenuous activities you and Solas were doing."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Merrill, how long have you been caring for these refugees?"

"Since Kirkwall, I wasn't able to stay with Hawke forever."

..

_It scares me how easily I slip into Thedas here, there's no confusion there's no anger or questions why. Am I losing myself to Thedas? Will I be able to go back?_

..

Merrill and her group were soon on their way, and we soon arrived in Val Royeaux. I marvelled at the beauty of the city, and the masks that the Orlesians wore. It was amazing.

..

I sat with Dorian, Solas and Trevelyan during the early morning at her parent's friend's holiday home, and at the moment I was arguing with Dorian and Solas.

"I am not a boy!"

"Well…" Solas

"Last I checked I had the reproductive organs of a female thus I am a female and thus a woman!"

"Some women identify as a man." Dorian

"I'm wearing a _skirt_."

"If you think about it, a skirt is just one leg of a pair of pants," sound reasoning there Dorian. I felt my smile grow to a grin.

"So where's the other leg?"

"Someone else is wearing it." Solas seemed to see where I was getting at, the tips of his ears a bright red.

"Omega…"

"So you could say I'm in someone's pants?" I laughed, like, a giggle snort laugh. Dorian groaned and Solas buried his head in his hands, his ears a lovely shade of red, Trevelyan rolled her eyes at me and I still sat there laughing.

"One day, Omega, one day you will find a man who will laugh at your jokes," Dorian said.

"I think I have all the man I need."

"Oh you know me, my dear, I'm not one to be tied down." he said flippantly.

"Oh I don't know about that, dearest." I raised my eyebrows suggestively at him, before leaning back in the large arm chair. The room was brilliant, the walls were a bright blue, and a red decorative cupboard where cutlery sets were on display was next to the northern wall. Paintings hung on the walls, of who I assumed were the current owners, they seemed like nice people; they'd managed to smile the whole time they'd been painted. Whether that was for vanity or the artist was on friendly terms with them and wanted them to appear friendly was anyone's guess.

The chair was comfortable too; I stroked the arm softly with my fingers, very soft I could fall asleep in it.

..

A hand shook my shoulder, and I opened my eyes groggily, Solas stood over me a hand went to my forehead.

"Solas? What… what time is it?" I asked, I lifted myself up from the chair and almost fell on my face if Solas hadn't been there to steady me I would have fallen asleep on the floor, not the first time either.

"Just after midday, Trevelyan and I got concerned when you didn't join us for the luncheon with those Orlesian nobles, so I made something for you." I looked at the food he had placed on the small table that the armchairs sat in a circle around, I blushed.

"Oh, Solas, you didn't have to get me anything, I could have made something myself, you didn't need to go to all this trouble." I felt embarrassed.

"Of course I'd do this, Lethallan." I smiled at him.

..

I had dragged Solas to the enormous library I had found, the book cases went up to the ceiling which was so _tall_.

I had instantly gone to any fiction books, though it'd be more _practical_ of me to read up on history and how to act in Thedas but… _novels_. A small book grabbed my attention; I brushed the dust off of the cover.

_Her skirts of Thunder, _interesting, I kept searching through the aisles, Solas found me an hour or so later surrounded by a fortress of books.

"I'd expected to find you with the history books," he picked up a book from one of the piles surrounding me.

"Why research history when I have you, Solas? I could never replace you, why I'd cry myself to sleep every night without you." I grinned up at him, he offered a hand to pull me up and I accepted.

"What're you reading?"

"I was about to start _Her Skirts of Thunder_, it sounds interesting."

"Ah, I believe I've heard the tale."

"Could you tell me? We need to be back at the house soon and I doubt the book would survive long in a house with Trevelyan."

"I'd be glad to."

..

We were lying on my bed, Solas stroking my hair. I settled my head on his shoulder, more than eager to hear his version of the story.

"From what I remember of the tale once there was a powerful magister whose abilities bordered on godhood, but his favoured school was that of storms. He could summon storms with barely a thought, but to his eyes they were not true storms, they were pale shadows compared to the true thing. So he searched the Fade for a way to make them as beautiful and dangerous as a true storm, in his wanderings he came across an elven slave girl who danced with the spirits themselves. When she danced, even in the pale version the fade brought him, her feet and skirts imitated the sounds of thunder perfectly. At first he was angry with the very thought of her, how dare she be able to perfect storms when he could not? But night after night he felt drawn to her, as she danced with spirits of compassion, love and hope. Drawn to her just as the spirits were.

But one night the spirits around her became aware of him and made her cease her dancing, he was angry at the spirits and thought to strike them from the very Fade. Though she was but a slave and he a magister, she stopped him from killing her friends, she knew why he was here for he had shouted it to the heavens, she swore that if he'd dare to touch the spirits she'd cut her own feets off and burn them. There would be no more thunder dancing from her, he fell to his knees, and begged her not to do so. For he had grown to love her, he knew not the person she was he only loved the thunder her skirts and feet made.

She grew even angrier at him, she knew that he loved her skill not her, she turned from him and awoke. When he too awoke he swore that he'd have her for himself even if it meant taking her by force, so he searched for her, and when he found her she fled into the forests and hills. He chased after her, always a step behind her; she found a secret place dedicated to her own gods, though whether they were Elven, the Maker or the Old Gods is uncertain. She prayed to be free to dance with her friends again.

And so the gods answered, they turned her to the sky, but the magister had found his way to her even then. She tried to flee but couldn't so instead she danced, her dancing summoned storm clouds like you have never seen, her tears became the rain, her anger the lightning and her dancing the thunder. The magister fled in fear but the storm would have him whether he willed it or not.

Creating the storm bled the life from her, and in her last moments the gods turned her into a constellation of stars, to forever dance." His voice was soft, velvety smooth, addictive- oh creators where are these thoughts coming from? - By now his arms were wrapped around me tightly, he rested his chin on my shoulder.

"Thank you for sharing that with me, Solas."

"It is my pleasure, Lethallan," he whispered in my ear, I smiled.

"Solas, might I ask one more thing of you?"

"Name it, Lethallan."

"I want to get to know you better."

"Of course, Lethallan, perhaps we should go somewhere more interesting than here."

..

Haven, it'd definitely grown on me, though it was still cold.

"Why here?" I'd echo everything a Lavellan would say even if it meant my life.

"Haven is familiar. It will always be important to you."

"We've talked about this already."

He lead us into the dungeon, I glanced at the cell where I'd been kept for the shortest amount of time.

"You'll remember that I was beside you while you slept, studying you for how you arrived here."

"Then you entered my dreams."

"Then I entered your dreams, I ran every test I could come up with, searched the Fade for answers, yet nothing was to be found. I almost believed that Cassandra would have followed through with the threats she made while I studied the Inquisitor's Anchor."

"Don't worry; Cassandra is like that with everyone." He chuckled, _I win!_

"Yes," we left the dungeons, and stood a few meters away from the chantry's doors "I'd almost thought you'd never wake up, how could you? A mortal sent physically from the Fade with no Anchor? I was- once again- frustrated and frightened; any spirits I would have asked had fled in fear of the Breach. Even the Inquisitor seemed to doubt me, I resigned myself to flee, should the need arise. "

"And where would you go?"

"Somewhere far away I might study the Breach for some other way to close it in case the Anchor failed," I raised an eyebrow and cocked my hip, "I never _said_ that it was a _good_ plan."

"Then you went into my dreams? Couldn't you have given me a good shake?" he didn't speak for a while, "you didn't actually try that did you?"

"I was desperate," I laughed, the great constantly calm hedge mage Solas trying to shake someone awake. Priceless, I need a drawing of that.

"You are a treasure, Solas."

"When you woke I felt the whole world change." My heart melted, seriously.

"'felt the whole world change'?" I smiled at him, stepping closer.

"A figure of speech,"

"I'm utterly aware of the metaphor; I'm insanely interested in felt."

"You… change everything." I was right next to him now, he looked away from me.

"Sweet talker," I murmured, before my courage could leave me, I grabbed his jaw-not hard enough to hurt him- turned his face towards me and kissed him. His mouths was unyielding against my own, I broke away quickly and turned to run away in complete utter _shame_. When he grabbed my arm, shaking his head at me he pulled me back, his lips captured mine easily enough for there was no resistance-nor would there ever be- he tasted and smelled like peppermint and cinnamon. He pulled away all too quickly, and then we were right back at it, damn straight.

"We shouldn't, it isn't right, not even here."

"Not even- oh godamnit, this isn't even _real_."

"That's a matter up for debate, probably best discussed after you," he leaned in closer; he had this cheeky little grin on his stupid handsome ass face "_wake up_."

..

I shot straight up gasping with a hand placed over my heart, I flopped back down.

"One of these days, he _will _give me a heart attack." I grumbled, and then smiled when I thought about our first, second and third kiss. "When I find you Solas I will love you, then I will end you before you kill me." I stumbled out of my bed, I opened the window just a crack it was barely morning and Solas was a late riser. So there'd be no chance of me attacking him from behind for a few hours yet.

**Fin! Soon it's to be Christmas! Then I'll have a special surprise waiting! (probably)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Christmas Eve! Also because I can, and relationships because we all know why you're here. Sickos. I was also listening to meatloaf (no idea why, they're not really my kind of thing) and I came across you must have taken the words right out of my mouth.**

I turned back to my bed, how on earth had I managed to get here? Did he drug me? Had he knocked me out? Did they have chloroform in Thedas?

I shook my head, I was distracting myself and I had things that needed doing. I plugged my phone into one of the portable chargers I had bought some time back. I sat back on the bed, unsure as to what to do; it wasn't even a reasonable time to be wake up Solas to ambush him.

"I have to do _something_, won't be able to sleep after that." I got up again and slipped into a dress- I still needed to fix my coat it has holes- it was simple enough, it was a dark purple, very pretty, I was on a holiday damn it I didn't need to wear armour. I can't remember where it came from though, strange, I threw on a pair of shoes, too.

I opened the door, and ran as quietly as possible down the hallway and out the front door. There were a few people milling about, human nobles and elven servants alike. I quickly joined the early morning crowd, which lead me to the market place.

Despite it being the perfect time to get anything at a good price there weren't many people around, a few elves on early errands. I didn't exactly need produce so I skipped past those pretty quickly. There was a stand with a few odds and ends, children's toys, old books, jewellery, few bits and bobs, scrap metal that sort of thing. I couldn't buy the jewellery, there'd be no practical use for it and it'd just collect dust in Skyhold. The books were of no interest to me, a few used copies of _Sword and Shields_. Not my favourite reading material. There was a mirror, I picked it up and almost dropped it when I saw my face, it wasn't that there weren't mirrors at Skyhold it's just I never had time to look into them. I probably should have expected the Vallaslin, another thing. My _eyes_, they were purple due to a genetic mutation before but they were never so _vibrant_, creators I'm hideous. I put it down before I accidentally smashed it.

..

It was a few hours before I returned to the house; Trevelyan greeted me at the door.

"How was the market?" she closed the door behind me as I slipped my shoes off and left them with everyone else's.

"How-"I shook my head and smiled "it was great, how was your day, Trevelyan?"

"Fine, Dorian lost all his money to me in Wicked Grace, the others arrived finally, and Solas only just got up if you want to know." She grinned at me, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. I rolled my eyes and entered the sitting room, Solas sat in there alone. In my chair. My chair. Alone. Chair.

_That is my chair_

I sat down in his chair, a silent declaration of war that wasn't really going to happen. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Sleep well?" he asked, a clear smile in his voice.

"I've never done that before. On a number of levels." He laughed softly.

"I apologise, the kiss was impulsive, and ill considered. I should not have encouraged it." My own smile fell then popped right back up.

"Oh you say that now, but you're the one that started with tongue." The tips of his ears went red.

"I did no such thing!"

"Oh! Does it not count if it's only Fade tongue?"

"It has been a long time, and things have always been… easier for me in the Fade. I am not certain this is the best idea it could lead to trouble."

"I'm willing to take that chance, Solas, but only if you too are willing."

"I… maybe, yes, if I could take a little time to think. There are… considerations."

"Take all the time you need, Solas."

"Thank you, I am not often thrown by things that happen in dreams, but I am reasonably certain we are awake now and if you wish to discuss anything I would enjoy talking."

"_Anything_?"

"Ah-"

'Good! Tell me, Solas, what are your opinions on Elven culture."

"I thought you'd be more interested in sharing _your _opinions on Elven culture. You are Dalish are you not?" I could get angry at him, but I didn't even have a clan as I didn't even originate from Thedas so I went… a slightly different path and forced a clearly fake laugh.

"Just because I am Dalish doesn't mean I'll pretend to know everything." I leaned back in his chair and crossed one leg over the other.

"A surprisingly smart response," I narrowed my eyes at that remembering to shun him at some point, "but while the Dalish share stories mangling the details I have walked the Fade I have seen things they have not."

"Ir abelas, hahren, if the Dalish have done you a disservice I would rectify that. What course would you set for them that is different from the one they're on now?"

"Ir abelas… Da'len. If I can offer any understanding, you have but to ask" we talked for a while about Arlathan, blood magic, and the Fade. Trevelyan, Dorian and Cole joined us. Well, Cole just kind of appeared but whatever.

"How was the journey, Cole?" I asked it couldn't hurt to bring him into a conversation, even though Trevelyan let him stay she's avoided him thus far.

"First, second, and third kiss in the Fade, fear of being left behind, mirror in the market first time seeing the Vallaslin and my eyes, I'm hideous. The journey was uneventful, Trevelyan was relieved." Solas looked at me.

"'first time seeing the Vallaslin'?" Trevelyan asked with a small frown.

"We don't have many mirrors among the Dalish, I was… surprised to see them," I turned my attention back to Cole, "have you seen the markets?"

"No."

"Would you like to go there later? Perhaps you'd see something you'd like."

"I don't know, maybe." I smiled at him.

"Just let me know when you'd like to go, if you so chose to do so." I settled back in Solas' chair, content to listen to Dorian trying to get his money back and Trevelyan talk with Solas about other stuff. I closed my eyes, and fell asleep.

..

"Omega?" I opened my eyes a little startled, Cole stood next to the chair.

"Cole?"

"Would you take me to the markets?" I smiled at him and lifted myself out of the chair; I need to stop taking naps in these things.

"Sure, Cole, I'll tell Trevelyan we're heading out and then we'll go. Is that fine with you?" he nodded and I searched for Trevelyan, eventually I found her conversing with Solas.

"Omega, heading out?" she smiled at me after looking warily at Cole, who seemed blissfully ignorant.

'_We_ are, just thought to let you know,"

"Mind if I join?" Solas asked, standing up, my heart fluttered. God damn it I am not smitten!

"I don't what about you Cole?"

"I don't mind."

..

It didn't take long for me to find my shoes and to head out for the markets. Cole ended up ahead, helping people in passing, while Solas and I walked side by side.

"He seems happy," I commented with a smile on my face.

"He does, it is good he finds enjoyment in helping people." I looked ahead at the entrance to the market place.

"She's beautiful, she may not think so but she is she just doesn't see herself the way I do." Cole's voice came up from behind us, I glanced sideways at Solas, and there was no way Cole came up with that on his own. The tips- nay the entirety of his ears- were red.

I smiled my ears were burning as was my face, now was not the time to start thinking about this, because if I did I would think about his butt, and in the middle of a market was not the place to think about Solas' butt.

It wasn't long before Cole was milling about helping people and then making him forget him, he managed to also browse a few of the stalls too, I was content to sit on a bench and watch him. Solas sat beside me; he seemed pleased that Cole was enjoying himself.

It was growing later, which also meant it was growing colder and I wasn't dressed for cold weather. I shivered, rubbing my arms to create warmth from friction.

"Are you cold?" _oh nah I just like acting like it_ I nodded, he motioned for me to move closer to him I shuffled over and he wrapped an arm around me. I laid my head on his shoulder and my hand on his chest, no doubt we looked like a loving couple, and even so _I _couldn't so easily define _what_ we were.

But it felt nice; he was warm, though almost unnaturally so-but he was Fen'Harel after all not that it changed anything- I could feel safe here.

I closed my eyes, I _probably_ wouldn't fall asleep but considering how much I have been sleeping lately it wouldn't surprise me if I did.

"I hope you don't plan on going to sleep on me, Da'len."

"What can I say? Professional pillow." I smiled up at him, _she's beautiful_ his words, echoed in my head. His eyes flashed with… something I wasn't really paying attention to his eyes, more to his lips. His mouth moved towards mine- if someone interrupted us now it would be more dramatic if this was our first kiss, since it wasn't it'd just be bad luck- his mouth was hot, and his tongue swept into my own mouth.

..

It was a few days later when the weather got really hot, that I dreamed again with him in the Fade. He took a rose from the bountiful rose bush near us.

"Would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?" _does he know that I know he is Fen'Harel or is he enjoying his own inside joke?_

"Will he offer me his mouth?" _he could be referencing Meatloaf, damn he needs better taste._

"Yes,"

"Will he offer me his teeth?" I moved closer to him.

"Yes." _He is totally referencing Meatloaf, what kind of crazy world is this?_

"Will he offer me his jaws?" I wrapped my arms around his neck chest to chest with him now.

"Yes,"

"Good enough for me," I kissed him, his lips parted under mine; he still tasted like peppermint, his hands rested on my waist pulling me even closer. I broke away and rested my head on his shoulder.

"Vhenan," _I win!_ "Ar lath ma." _Heart breaker_

"Ar lath ma, vhenan'ara."

..

I woke up with Solas lying next to me, holding me still, I closed my eyes.

I was happy, I as in love.

My mother would be thrilled.

**Fin!**


End file.
